Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others

Extremely interesting book! I would highly recommend purchasing it if you are interested in entrepreneurship or idea generation.

...and it is truly brilliant. Like the premise of his book, nothing that David Murray expounds in 'Borrowing Brilliance' is new or original, nor does he ever claim it to be so. The power comes in the fact that he seemed to say what no one else wanted to or has - at least not this convincingly - that being creative means abducting ideas from other persons/sources and then altering the combination enough to claim it as your own. A mid-1990's Graphic Design manual claimed that 30% was the threshold number of required change to avoid any copyright infringements, but as a lifelong student of fine art (and holder of an AA and BFA in the applied arts), I recall many times being asked, actually told, by my Art professors to copy the works of the Renaissance Masters - contour line by contour line. Even to the point of taking tracing paper onto photo copies and emulating the feel of the stroke that they might have had when creating their respective masterpieces. Copying was how Artist's of old learned from one another, and it is still how many classically trained artists, musicians and athletes learn and train today (all of whom coincidentally, are all proficient at tapping into the alpha-theta state of mind - as Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's hyposthesis of "Flow" is also touched upon in this book.) Since the days of the Master & Apprentice learning schema are no longer the norm, take the author's advice and learn from the wisdom of your direct competitors, substitutes to your products or services, ideal exemplars in other fields, and from the oldest problem-solver: Mother Nature.

Borrowing Brilliance is one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, and inspiring accounts of the creative process that I have ever encountered. For those of you who are active creative thinkers, you must acknowledge that the process/technique of creative thinking and innovation is articulated so well by author David Kord Murray, that he has made it accessible to those who once viewed it impossible or solely, a 'gift'. An exhaustive amount of research in all disciplines be it psychology, philosophy, science, literature or entertainment, along with the variety of personalities, inventors, scientists, authors, and entrepreneurs cited, sprinkled with the author's own personal story make this a compelling read. Mr. Murray puts it all on the line by exposing both his own failures and triumphs to demonstrate how his technique is applied and works. For those of you who do not think you have what it takes to be a creative thinker, you will learn. For those of you who have your name on copyrights, trademarks, & patents and believe you are the ultimate creative thinker, you will be humbled. This is truly an important book that I highly recommend for the individual and professional alike.

Summary David Kord Murray; aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, innovator, fortune 500 executive; has managed to write one of the most personal, practical and insightful books on the innovation process. It is well written and a joy to read. Audience If you want to learn how to innovate; whether you an aspiring or current entrepreneur, working in a large/small corporation or self employed; whether you are working in the corporate world, or entertainment, media or academia; you will find within these pages a process that will lead to higher quantity and quality of ideas. Murray shares with you not only his personal story that illuminates and illustrates the process of innovation, but also gives you a unrivaled view into the journey of an innovator; a hero's journey. This is not for someone that just wants to manage the innovation process; this is for someone that wants to innovate; individually, as a team or company; someone who wants to generate ideas and implement them. Detailed Review I have been researching creativity and innovation for 2 decades and I have read far and wide on the subject and even developed my own innovation system based on my research; this is the first time I have read a book that covers the same breath and depth of my research and that came to the same conclusions. Murray's research and journey is very reminiscent from engineer to entrepreneur to innovator. His reading list (some listed at the back of the book and some that I can tell from his writing) mirrors my own from scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. He draws from the lives and ideas of people like Einstein, Darwin, Edison, Disney, Jobs, Gates, Nash, Lucas, Page and Brin and draws from research in neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, cinematography, economics, biology, evolution and business to develop a process that is one of the best encapsulations of true innovation. I am not sure I have ever read a business book like this. Murray shares his own personal journey that led to him developing this innovation process. The story is very personal and probably one of the most insightful books on the joys and agonies of innovation and entrepreneurship. His story not only describes the ideas he developed for his companies; a ground breaking financial services firm, one of the most successful direct mail campaigns and successful online tax software; but also shows the messy, warts and all innovation process. Most authors stick to explaining their successes and gloss over their failures. Murray courageously shares the ups and downs, and I feel this makes the book even more powerful. Innovation is messy and most people focus on the end result too much, when the real magic of innovation is in this messy, iterative, recursive and fractal process. I have to admit when I saw this book and it's subtitle - `The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others' I was expecting yet another lightweight, fluffy book on how to innovate. I w

I've read many books about creativity over the years in search of golden nuggets. This book fulfills that search! It is amazingly well-written and provides a real action plan for innovation. Not like other fluffy business books about finding good ideas. This book is a must read.